WSJ/NBC: For the first time, views of Obama are more unfavorable than favorable

posted at 8:01 pm on October 30, 2013 by Allahpundit

Lots of people, including NBC, are leading with the fact that his job approval is also at a new low (42/51), but that’s less interesting to me than his favorable rating. Of course his job approval’s in the tank. How could it not be? He’s tangled up in the NSA dragnet again, he’s still smarting (as is the GOP) from public bitterness about the shutdown, and he’s got a five-alarm political fire on his hands from the dual failures of Healthcare.gov and the “if you like your plan” fiasco. This isn’t even the worst approval rating he’s had in polling lately: YouGov pegged him at 44/54 and last week Fox News had him at 41/53. He’s lucky he’s not below 40 percent. Yet.

His favorable rating is more significant to me because that’s not so much a measure of a politician’s performance as it is his likeability. You can think a guy’s doing a crappy job but still sympathize with him personally. O’s been underwater in WSJ/NBC’s job approval polling before — he had an especially bad stretch in late 2011 — but the public continued on balance to have a more favorable impression of him than an unfavorable one. They’ve been on his side, even when they’ve when they’ve been unhappy with the results. But not anymore:

The NBC/WSJ pollsters argue that no single reason explains Obama’s lower poll standing. Rather, they attribute it to the accumulation of setbacks since the summer — allegations of spying by the National Security Agency, the debate over Syria’s chemical weapons, the government shutdown and now intense scrutiny over the problems associated with the health care law’s federal website and its overall implementation…

And for the first time in the survey, even Obama’s personal ratings are upside-down, with 41 percent viewing him a favorable light and 45 percent viewing him negatively.

Key question: Are they upside-down because people are exasperated over the shutdown or because it’s starting to dawn on them that ObamaCare might be worse than they thought? Here’s two bits from the crosstabs showing that, while Republicans did end up taking the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, it’s not as lopsided as Democrats hoped it would be:

The share of the public blaming Republicans singularly for the government closing down doesn't even crack 40 percent, and O is at net -20 favorability on his handling of it. Now, the numbers on O-Care:

The fact that there’s 52 percent who think the law needs a major overhaul or should be eliminated entirely doesn’t surprise me, although it’s splashy enough that NBC has devoted a separate post to it. That’s in line with O-Care’s traditional levels of 45/55 approval. What’s interesting is the first table, showing opposition to the law starting to tick upward again after falling during the shutdown. That contradicts the Gallup poll I posted earlier suggesting that support for the law is steady due to partisan divisions. Maybe not. Maybe the Healthcare.gov apocalypse and percolating media coverage of rate shock are starting to bite. And do note: This poll was only conducted through October 28th. If it’s true that the public’s souring on ObamaCare, they’re surely even sour today than they were on Monday.

I’ll leave you with this. Anyone care to float an explanation?

[S]upport for the law has slipped with one key group – women, who traditionally rank health care as a higher priority than men, and who are seen as an important plank in selling the law.

Americans called it a bad idea by a 47-37 percent margin – a shift from 43-38 percent earlier this month. But among women, a group President Barack Obama won by 11 points in 2012, just 38 percent think it’s a good idea, while 45 percent do not. That’s down from early October, when most women said the law was a good idea by a 41-39 percent margin.

Among white women, results are even worse. Three weeks ago, they thought it was a bad idea by a 46-36 percent margin. Now a majority say so, at 52-32 percent.

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Allahpundit:
I think @ForecasterEnten noted another recent poll that had Obama’s favorable rating underwater. I remember him pointing that out on twitter within the last month IIRC. Not a huge deal whether this poll or another is the first, but it is pretty significant that two recent polls show the same finding on Obama’s favorables.

It’s is the first time that Obama’s personal approval rating has become unfavourable in the WSJ/NBC poll.

For years, he has magically been able to keep his personal approval ratings in the 50s or even 60s while his job approval ratings were lower. People no longer see him as honest or competent. The ‘If you like your plan, you can keep your plan’ fiasco comes on the heels of ‘I didn’t draw that red line.’

Women are starting to do a lot more of the bookkeeping for households. They also are more exposed to fluctuations in their disposable income. Stay at home moms, for example, are very aware of the disposable income that a family has.

As more women find out that Obamacare is increasing insurance rates, they will turn against it.

Thats really the only thing I can come up with for their slipping approval.

I would write “How Nixonian!” but that would be an affront to Nixon…
.Accept no substitutes! ØbamaCare is the issue, not the elections, not falsely blaming Republicans for the Federal partial shutdown, not the Benghazi atrocities, but the presidential deceit about ØbamaCare and Healthcare.gov and his acolytes’ attempt to cover for him on this issue alone.

..oh, keeeeee-rist! Here we go again. Look, folks, we have 1,178 more days of this assshole. He said it himself: there are 45,000,000 mentally ill out there. Those folks along with the ones who want free stuff will keep him at about 40% and then the nostalgia will build in during the 2016 election and he’ll remain at 45-52% for the rest of his worthless life.

The truly awful thing is that President Stool Sample will never go away. He will be Bubba Clinton on steroids — always Hoovering up the limelight.

I’d guess it has more to do with the fact that the propaganda machine that propped him up to begin with is now acting a little bit like a fifth estate, so now it’s not as cool to be an Obama supporter as it was before. If he wins them back or if they find a more competent Commie to support we’re still in the same boat.

It’s quite a list:
– It was a video, not Al Qaeda
– I didn’t draw a red line
– If you like your plan

Any more?

faraway on October 30, 2013 at 8:21 PM

Yes, but it’s the last one that will be his and the Dems undoing. Whether you’re a lib in general or just an Obama sycophant, or simply lost somewhere in the middle, losing your plan after being promised you wouldn’t will depress the vote for Ds in 2014 and 2016, possibly to the point of no return for them. It will make Waterloo look like a playground skirmish, and 41’s no-new-taxes pledge a slip of the tongue.

The share of the public blaming Republicans singularly for the government closing down doesn’t even crack 40 percent, and O is at net -20 favorability on his handling of it. Now, the numbers on O-Care:
=================================================================

Single payer will NOT get passed under Barack Obama. He will never again have 60 votes in the Senate. Resist We Much on October 30, 2013 at 8:14 PM

You sure about that? The landscape changes after he cloward and pivens the industry. I’m not discounting you, but you know what he’s doing. No one is stopping him. You don’t think GOPe will collapse under pressure in about 1 year?

Progs rule by fear, not polls. And they do it well. The polls don’t matter. Not when the blame is consistently pinned on everyone else. When this God awful mess comes to full fruition, we’ll catch the blame. More power will be consolidated.

Perhaps even blacks, Hispanics, and independents who are being screwed over equally with conservative whites are finally getting it. This man has divided us along racial, socioeconomic, and partisan lines. He went to bed while good Americans were being killed in Benghazi. He has ruined our reputation in the world, particularly the mideast. He has stood by while Iran builds nukes. He, Reid, and Pelosi along with their Dem cohorts shoved this turkey of a bill down our throats while the economy collapsed. That he still enjoys approval ratings in the 40s astonishes me.

Obama can thank his lucky stars the press isn’t covering him like they did George Bush. If they were, his numbers would be in the teens or something.

I’m not sure if the press feels a certain responsibility to actually inform the public about this Obamacare fiasco or they’re trying to regain a small amount of credibility, but it’s nice to see them actually doing some reporting for a change.

Let’s face it, if the Obamacare disaster keeps up, the Republicans wanting to repeal it is going to look a whole lot better. I just hope the Republicans are smart enough to understand they really need to have a viable alternative ready, if this thing does collapse. I also hope they understand what other problems Obamacare has created because it’s going to be really difficult to put Humpty Dumpty together again, which is the plan anyway.

well, um, sorry but, on balance more women are low-info voters. esp single women. period. low-infos are finally getting some info thru their thick skulls. too late. and they the numbers are now truing up.